2016年10月11日，国际学术权威刊物自然出版集团旗下子刊《Nature Communications》杂志在线发表了美国范德堡大学Sarah R. Bordenstein研究员和Seth R. Bordenstein研究员合作的一篇研究论文，研究发现一种感染细菌的病毒会与包括黑寡妇蜘蛛在内的动物分享DNA序列。

感染细菌的病毒不会影响真核生物(比如动物、植物、真菌和原生生物)。病毒虽然常常会与宿主交换遗传物质，但吸收与宿主不同域生物的基因还是前所未见的。

Sarah Bordenstein和Seth Bordenstein对WO噬菌体，一种感染沃尔巴克氏体细菌的病毒进行了基因组测序。他们发现，WO噬菌体基因组的一部分是由与真核生物类似的基因组成的。这些基因与昆虫和蜘蛛负责毒素、调节宿主-微生物相互作用、宿主细胞自杀和跨细胞膜转运的基因密切相关。由于沃尔巴克氏体会影响昆虫和蜘蛛的细胞，作者认为这些基因或许能帮助病毒潜入动物细胞，以到达细菌细胞。

由于这些基因具有真核特征，且在动物中分布，它们在被病毒囊括前很可能起源于动物，但动物和病毒间DNA传递的路径和方向仍不明确。

原文链接：

Eukaryotic association module in phage WO genomes from Wolbachia

原文摘要：

Viruses are trifurcated into eukaryotic, archaeal and bacterial categories. This domain-specific ecology underscores why eukaryotic viruses typically co-opt eukaryotic genes and bacteriophages commonly harbour bacterial genes. However, the presence of bacteriophages in obligate intracellular bacteria of eukaryotes may promote DNA transfers between eukaryotes and bacteriophages. Here we report a metagenomic analysis of purified bacteriophage WO particles of Wolbachia and uncover a eukaryotic association module in the complete WO genome. It harbours predicted domains, such as the black widow latrotoxin C-terminal domain, that are uninterrupted in bacteriophage genomes, enriched with eukaryotic protease cleavage sites and combined with additional domains to forge one of the largest bacteriophage genes to date (14,256 bp). To the best of our knowledge, these eukaryotic-like domains have never before been reported in packaged bacteriophages and their phylogeny, distribution and sequence diversity imply lateral transfers between bacteriophage/prophage and animal genomes. Finally, the WO genome sequences and identification of attachment sites will potentially advance genetic manipulation of Wolbachia.